"Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men" (John 1:3, 4).

On Sunday, July 18, 1999, Ron Bottomly had taken his wife and daughters to the Portland airport for a trip to California. After seeing them off, he walked toward the closest exit out of the airport mall area to the parking lot. There was a surprisingly large number of people passing back and forth so he decided he could just as easily walk down the mall, past the shops, and take the next exit.

As he walked he noticed a beautiful glass butterfly in the window of the Made in Oregon store. He decided to check the price because his wife, Kathy, collected butterflies. Finding it a little more than his budget would allow, he turned to leave the store. As he stepped out he saw a gentleman had collapsed directly in front of him. Ron, a skilled ICU nurse, knelt beside the man, proceeded to do an assessment, and started cardiac pulmonary resuscitation (CPR). When the paramedics arrived he helped them start the intravenous and other emergency procedures. The gentleman was “shocked” and after about the fifth try, a palpable pulse was felt. Forty-five minutes after his collapse, the man was loaded into the ambulance and taken to the hospital with his heart beating.

Divine Intervention

A couple weeks later Ron received a package from Irene, the daughter of the man whose life he had saved. Inside was an exquisite glass ornament hanging from a metal stand and a letter that explained why she believed Ron unknowingly played a part in a divine intervention.

First, the fact that Ron was there at the right time and in the right place and was a trained medical ICU nurse, was a miracle. The large number of people at the exit was unusual for Sunday morning, but more strange was the glass butterfly. If Ron hadn’t gone in to check the price, he would have already walked past the place when her father collapsed. Thinking the butterfly would be an appropriate thank-you gift for Ron, Irene and her sister went back to the shop, but there were no butterflies—and the shopkeeper said there never had been. They checked all the stores nearby. Nothing. “Unless both of us misunderstood what you said about the butterflies,” Irene wrote, “my 13-year-old son, Brad, came up with the best explanation. God created an illusion to keep you nearby.”

What an awesome God we serve—Creator of all, even butterflies in the mall.